Garage lift ?
 

I have a Garage hoist/lift question, For those of you that have a lift in your garage, the kind you can drive onto. Then raise your car up to work on the underside of you car, or store a vehicle under. Whats your ceiling height in your garage. I only have a 9'6" ceiling height. Seems a little tight. I have room for a lift behind the garage that is open to the elements, but I'm curious if anybody has one in their garage that has limited ceiling height like mine.

That is tight. Raise the ceiling or work with it as is. You probably won't like what comes with an outside lift.

Lift
 

Check out Harding Steel in Denver CO. I have 4 storage lifts, these are the best with low height.

I have 10', 9'-6" shouldn't be an issue. Mine will go one notch higher but it would hit the light unless I back the car in, so I'm probably around 9'-6 usuable ht. I can still park another Firebird under it even with it one notch lower, but it's tight.
Sometimes I'll lower the car to various levels to work on it, all the way up is too high for some things anyway, but I'm only 5'-7"

Only real problem is opening the garage door with the car up, and I have 8' high doors, 7's would be a royal pain.
To park a car under this way I have to raise the door only enough to clear, top car backed in I can raise the door without hitting.

I hate you and love you all at the same time :hail:

Good info, sounds like if I have 9,6" with no obstructions it will work. Parking under it would be a second option for me, I was more curious about working under it. I'm only an 1" taller, when I visualize working on the car it just seems that the lift wouldnt get the car high enough to work comfortably. By looking at you pics it looks like it would be no problem at all working on the car. I do see what you mean about the door opening.

nice set up you have

1 more ?, whos the mnfr of you lift

thanks for the reply

For working under, you might want to look into a MaxJax by Danmarr...lots of good info over on garagejournal about this lift and others. It is about $2300 shipped to your door and lifts to about 53". It has been enough for me to do everything I've needed to do while seated on a creeper stool. Tranny swaps, suspension and brake work, exhaust, etc... . Perish the thought but I would even have enough room to drop the k-member and engine out of my GT500 if I wanted or needed to. My ceiling is 9'. let me know if you have any questions about it. I installed myself over a day and it has been in service for a couple of years now.

I cannot however, store a car underneath it.

I have bend-pak and about 9`6". I store gto above a cadillac allante with about 1 inch or so above each. :)

The platform frame on the 4 post lift is about 4 inches and the lower car needs to slide under the frame. Once inside the frame there is an additional 4 inches over the lower car, if it`s roof is not too wide.

The allante is about 49.5 inches high.

I also raised the garage door tracks so the door hugs the ceiling when it goes up over the trunk of the gto.

George

Mine's an Atlas, but the design is simlar to a lot of the import lifts. I got it through Greg Smith Equipment, I think they have a store in AZ and probably ship to CA. Good company to deal with.
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/History

I was going to mention what George said about raising the door tracks, I'd heard some people did that.

I installed a tray ceiling in my center bay for a two post lift but haven't bought it yet. If you want more clearance and have the space just cut and reframe the center to clear the cars roof.
You can barely make it out in this picture, but I can get quite a bit more lift by allowing the car roof to go up into the tray.

we are marketing an in ground lift that goes flush with floor when not in use.
but you cant store a car under it as its a platform/scissor type.

I bought mine from complete hydraulics. Overall satisfied;
http://www.completehydraulic.com/lifts-4-post.html

I have 10.5' ceilings and have no problem double stacking two cars or even my Tacoma underneath. When the car is all the way up it is too high for me to work on it. Need to lower a few notches. Here is a link with a bunch of pics showing install and some pics of the simple track extensions I added to enable opening of door with car at full height.

http://s1003.photobucket.com/user/jr...?sort=3&page=1

working under a 4 post is a PITA...ok for oil changes etc...pulling tranny's , clutches etc is tough..easier under jack stands...I am close to 11 feet and have lots of room so a foot less should be OK

I have 8' doors and I raised the rear of the door rails about six inches and clear my top car easily.
Depending on what is the top car, I have to be careful about opening the door all the way.
It may hit the rear window of the top car.

I disagree. I have done it all.

What do you plan on using your lift for? More storage than maintenance? Or work only?
Feel fortunate that you've got almost 10'. I just installed a 2 post last fall, and only have an 8' ceiling. Need to raise my oversize 2 car roof this summer to 12'. Unfortunately, I've got trusses upstairs, so a dormer is out of the question.

One simple fix for this is to clamp a vise-grip on the door rail at the appropriate location as a doorstop, so the door won't run into the car. I've been doing it for years, and haven't run the door into the top car's rear window yet. :)

I'm hoping I can do a little of everything. Alot of good posts of what some of have done. Good pics. Looks like with a little planning I will be able to make a hoist work. Out to the garage to start measuring.


thanks all

if you have a 4 post lift and want to really do it all easyer,get the jack.True you can only pull the rear or front tires at a time but works great.I have 2 backyard buddies with a jack on one.Tom

I must be doing something wrong. I don't see how doing any sort of trans work is tough on a 4 post. I've got a 2 and 4 post and always use the 4 post for trans work. The only thing that irritates me is not being able to roll the trans jack under the lift when there is a trans on it. The workaround to that is rolling the workbench under the lift.

And safer.